moving to SA and wonder if anyone can recommend a part of cape town where a single male in his early thirties can get by surfing, bar hopping, grocery shopping, & soaking up local life without having to drive a car all day?

Well this is a tricky one... SA is not very good on the public transport front, and driving is a necessity. (Think LA).

If you want bar-hopping and grocery shopping. Look for a place in Gardens / City Bowl. THis is walking distance from Long Street and the shops etc. However from here you will have to drive to surf.

If you lived in Rondebosch / Obs (student hangouts). Good bars, and you are still close to the shops. You can catch the train to Muizenburg. M.burg is more of a long boarder / beginner beach (but still nice). Many more experienced / short board people dont go there much.

Up to you. Or you could just live in by the beach... and then drive to get to bars or clubs. Good Luck!
D

None, that's why they all live elsewhere. Afrikaners/Boers are a bloody diaspora. Nobody talks about this white flight on a nation-size scale. Just not politically correct I suppose. The ones left down there are either trying to leave or are too busy dying of AIDS.

Hi, it depends on what you are looking for. The city bowl/Atlantic seaboard are great for meeting people and crusing the spots, both socially and surfing, although the social life is more glam and pretentious than down south in the peninsula, where there are more and better quality waves.
Feel free to mail me if you want some more info

I've travelled this old world of ours from Barnsley to Peru
I've had sunshine in the arctic and a swim in Tinbuktu
I've seen unicorns in Burma and a Yetti in Nepal
And I've danced with ten foot pygmies in a Montezuma hall
I've met the King of China and a working Yorkshire miner
But I've never met a nice South African.

No he's never met a nice South African
And that's not bloody surprising man
'Cause we're a bunch of arrogant b***tards
Who hate black people

I once got served in Woolies aften less than four week's wait
I had lunch with Rowan Atkinson when he paid and wasn't late
I know a public swimming bath where they don't piss in the pool
I know a guy who got a job straight after leaving school
I've met a normal merman and a fairly modest German
But I've never met a nice South African.

No he's never met a nice South African
And that's not bloody surprising man
'Cause we're a bunch of talentless murderers
Who smell like baboons

I've had a close encounter of the twenty-second kind
That's when an alien spaceship disappears up your behind
I got directory enquiries after less than forty rings
I've even heard a decent song by Paul McCartney's Wings
I've seen a flying pig in a quite convincing wig
But I've never met a nice South African.

No he's never met a nice South African
And that's not bloody surprising man
'Cause we're a bunch of ignorant loudmouths
With no sense of humour - ha ha

I've met the Loch Ness monster and he looks like Fred Astaire
At the BBC in London he's the chief commissionaire
I know a place in Glasgow which is rife with daffodillies
I met a man in Katmandu who claimed to have two willies
I've had a nice pot noodle but I've never had a poodle
And I've never met a nice South African.